5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

[Hiki]

I read everything~! But I'm a really slooooow reader lately so it takes some time for me to read everything xD (I think my brain has been working too much xP) I'm gonna read everything again this week so I can draw something for the story :D

[oldwrench]

I promised more action, and here it comes. I have chapter sixty four done and things are heating up again. Will the Krikav be there for Dom and Chad to return to? Or, will Dominic or Chad survive to return to the ship. Things are looking tough for our friends.

Hiki, it would be just great if you drew something for the story. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 64

Before Edward could leave the control room, one of the men at the console called to him.
“General Geraldine, one of the mechs from the Krikav is entering the atmosphere.” Edward
turned back and checked the console. “Only the one?” He asked. “What do we have for air
cover?”

“There are four interceptors flying cover, sir” The man answered, “I’ve sent them vector
for interception.”

“Good, tell them to destroy it.” Edward ordered the soldier, then spun around and left the
room. Now he had to deal with Rydia. How would he deal with her naive notions this time?”

Colonel Hellwind looked up at his command board, he had seven of his original twelve
units out in defensive positions, but he knew it wasn’t enough. If they couldn’t see the enemy’s
cloaked mechs, they would stand little chance. With the com system antenna damaged, he
couldn’t hope to reach Ross and call him back.
Daniel turned back to Yuki, he wasn’t a psych man, and wasn’t sure what might help or
hurt, but he had to try. “Yuki, diagnostic mode, general George Parker, authorization, zulu, echo,
romeo, alpha, tango, uniform, lima, two, kilo.” Yuki didn’t move, but her eyes closed for a few
moments and reopened. “Yuki, shut down and reboot all cyber brain functions. Run a full system
diagnostic.” He ordered.

Yuki didn’t move, not even her eyes showed any signs she had heard the colonels orders.
Daniel sighed and turned away. “System diagnosis and repair completed, system backup installed
and functional. I am awaiting your orders,” Yuki’s voice came from behind him.

Dan spun back around. “Exit diagnostic mode,” He told her, and saw the girl blink. “We
need the sensors on line, there could be an attack by those cloaked mechs.”

“Sensors online, no enemies detected, ship system damage report is on your screen,” Yuki
reported. “Communications system operating at forty eight percent. I can only reach seven of the
mechs. We will reach orbit behind the small moon in twelve point three minutes.”

Dan was so relieved he almost felt weak. “Keep the mechs in defensive position until we
reach the moon, then set out remote sensors and recall the mechs.” The colonel ordered.

Dan turned to thank Ryoko but a voice from the doorway cut in. “Alright Dan, how did
you get the service code for your controller?” He turned and saw Johana standing in the doorway
with a gun leveled at him. “Those are top secret, only the top brass and a few psych men are
supposed to know them. Did you take over Ryoko too?”

Dan stood still. He knew using the service code looked suspicious, and with Johana
investigating troubles in the EDF, this didn’t bode well. She may be a friend, but she was an EDF
officer, and very capable of using that gun. “General Parker suspected trouble on this mission,”
Dan told her. “He sent me a sealed message warning me, and he also sent the controller’s service
code.”

Johana thought about that for a few seconds. “Ryoko, are you alright?” She asked.

“Yes colonel Kerlov,” She replied. “You were sleeping when the ship was attacked. I
made the decision to offer my assistance. Controller Yuki was incapacitated so I took over
secondary controls. I hope this was not contrary to your wishes, colonel.”

“No Ryoko, you did just fine under the circumstances.” Johana assured her companion.
“Speaking of which, would someone tell me what’s going on?”

Chad pulled up through another layer junction. He didn’t like the changes in gravity
gradient. He worked the thrusters to keep the mech stabilized in the gap. “Darn, we’re only
halfway through the belts. I’ll be glad when we get through.”

“We will not be able to return to the Krikav.” Ghost informed him quietly.

“Oh......” Chad answered as he struggled to avoid several rocks moving through the gap.
“WHAT? ....... What do you mean we won’t make it back? I’ll get us through this.”

“We have insufficient fuel to reach the Krikav.” Ghost replied.

“The tanks were full, we should have plenty of .........” Chad quickly brought up fuel
levels on his readouts. One of the two tanks was more than three quarters gone. There must be a
leak. “Why isn’t there a fuel leak warning? How fast are we losing fuel?” He asked, worried.

“The system doesn’t appear to be leaking under static conditions.,” Ghost informed him.
“The fuel appears to be consumed at an increased rate when the main thrusters are firing.”

Chad switched on the Minovsky drive unit. It was designed to give the mech long range
capability for recon duty. The drive consumed large amounts of power and it's acceleration would make it
difficult to avoid the rocks. It was risky, but his best chance............. His display lit up with red
warning markers. The drive had been damaged, Chad swore as he shut it down. “Ghost, can we
contact the ship? Well have to wait for a tow.”

“I have been unable to communicate with the ship, or any of the other mechs,” Ghost told
him. Remaining here for an extended period is not an option. We are vulnerable to damage from
the asteroids, and the environmental system is not operating correctly. The control systems have
been damaged.”

Chad looked through several diagnostic screens. He sat back and tried to calm himself.
“Looks like my only choices are to keep going and run out of fuel before I get out of these rocks,
or wait here hoping for someone to come and get me while I slowly choke to death.”

“That appears to be correct, Chad,” Ghost replied in her pleasant voice.

Dominic used his thrusters to decelerate at a high-g load. He kept the entry into the
atmosphere below the mech’s heat load tolerance. Soon he began to spiral down toward the
enemy base. The sooner he could et down, the better his chance of surprising them.
Suddenly, warning icons popped up on his screen. Four incoming markers, they were
fighters, not the old type that the pirates usually had, but these were some of the latest type.
Fighters were always a danger to mechs, faster and more agile in the atmosphere. Dominic
chuckled and switched on his cannons. “Bring it on, boys. I need a bit of target practice.”
The flight of interceptors broke into groups of two and moved to flank the mech. Dominic
smiled, they could try if they wanted, he’d just show them why he was called gunner. He snapped
the targeting onto the first fighter and pulled the trigger, The guns fired a couple rounds and
stalled. Dominic pulled the trigger again....... and again...... the cannons were silent. Quickly he
swung his shield to block the fire from the first pair of fighters and moved to avoid the fire of the
other two. He cursed as he punched the reset on the weapons board and hit the trigger again. Still
the guns remained silent. Dominic didn’t know that one of the small asteroids had made an
unlucky hit on the ammunition feed for the cannons, The system was jammed tight.
Dominic twisted and turned, he tried to block with his shield, but the fighters were too
quick and accurate, His mech was registering damage. He tried to get his beam rifle on target, but
the heavy gun was impossible to target on the fast little jets and, in the atmosphere, it’s range was
severely limited. He had to get down to the ground, there he would have the advantage. He would
just have to disable that cheap looking mech of theirs and he could shelter along the side of the
mountains.
Dominic deployed the experimental wings, that he’d had added to his mech, and fired the
thrusters. With the fighter jets following him, he dived toward the ground. He smiled when his
scanners showed the fighters peeling off and leaving. Now he was home free....... He wasn’t
expecting the withering barrage of fire from the anti-aircraft batteries around the base. Dominic
tried to swing his shield around but it was to late. Red warning markers lit on his screen as
system after system failed. Dominic realized he’d misread Chad’s message, he’d made a big
mistake, and pilots who make mistakes don’t make it back. Then everything went black.

[oldwrench]

Oh, I promised more action. Now we have the damaged Krikav running off, Chad, out of gas and out of luck, Dominic taken out, and Arisa stopped from a life saving rescue attempt. Colonel Hellwind is fast running out of pilots and, with a damaged ship, is going to be hard pressed to hold out much longer. And where is captain McFarlaine in all this????

tune in for the next exciting chapter......


Chapter 65

Arisa stopped at the airlock port. The colonel recalled the mechs now that the ship was
behind the small moon. She turned back toward the asteroid barrier and scanned for any sign of
another mech. She keyed her com,”Colonel, red three requesting permission to return to the
asteroid belt to search for blue four ......... and blue one.” “Request denied.” was the flat response
she received. Arisa clenched her fists, she felt tears burning her eyes. She had a bad feeling about
this.

Chad sat feeling despondent, He’d gotten this far, only to be taken out by a rock. He
compiled the results of his recon and set it up to attempt to transmit . There wasn’t much chance
it would get through, but he had to try. He started to type out a message, then stopped. “Ghost,
there is another option. We can go down to the planet.”

“There is insufficient fuel to reach the planet surface.” Ghost informed him.

“Ya, right,” Chad answered, “if you make a textbook approach. But what if we just drop
into the atmosphere, free-fall till we almost reach the surface then fire the thrusters at max. We’ll
make a nice soft landing.” Chad quickly punched numbers into the main board. “There should be
plenty of fuel for that.”

“We would burn up on entry to the atmosphere.” Ghost replied.

“Thought of that,” Chad told her, “I’ll lay flat and use the shield in front of us as a heat
shield. The ceramic composite should take it.”

“Also, you are not wearing your flight suit. You could not survive maximum thrust.”
Ghost added.

“Oh............ well, we’ll just have to take longer to slow down.” Chad entering new
figures in his computations. “There, I’m sure I can handle that much.”

Ghost answered, “There will be insufficient fuel to........”

“There’s enough........... I think.” Chad broke in, with more conviction than he felt.

Daniel finished briefing Johana on the situation. She was as surprised as he was that there
could be a weapon of that destructive power on the colony planet. He checked the screens and
noted the returning mechs. “Where the hell is captain McFarlaine?” He asked as he turned toward
Aidan.

“She’s probably sleeping,” Aidan answered the colonel.

“What? How could she sleep through that?” Dan barked.

“You did tell her to get a sleep inducer, Dan,” Aidan replied. “If she’s using that, she
could sleep through anything.”

“Oh..... Damn, that’s right. Well, I’ll have to wake her, We can’t let our only captain sleep
now, no matter how tired she is.” Dan sighed. “I’ll need everyone in the ready room. I’ll have to
make more adjustments to personnel.”

I’ll take care of it,” Aidan told him. He got up and headed for the door.

Chad composed a message to send to the Krikav, along with the intel, hoping they might
receive it. ‘I have to go down to the planet surface due to damage Ghost sustained from an
asteroid collision. I’m sending the recon photos of their weapon and base. I’m not with captain
Torres. I’ll return when I get Ghost repaired.’ Chad hoped that was good enough, and that it
would get through. They needed the recon data. “Ghost, send that message and the data five
times. Maybe it’ll get through.”

“As you wish, Chad.” The mech replied, “I must ask you to reconsider attempting to land
on the planet. There is little chance of success.

“We’ll be just fine, Ghost,” Chad tried to reassure the machine. “I’d rather take the risk
than sit here thinking about the air going bad. Besides, we might just go out in a blaze of glory.”

“Perhaps just a blaze,” Ghost mused.

Arisa spotted colonel Hellwind and the other colonel when she entered the ready room.
She stalked up to colonel Hellwind. “Sir, you can’t just leave them out there. They could be
damaged or injured. We have to go back and search for them.”

“No!” The colonel glared down at the small pilot. “I will not send any mechs out on a
futile search. If they were hit by one of those rocks, they could be anywhere. They could be dead
by now. You have to stay here and defend the ship. That is all, lieutenant.”

Johana watched the girl march angrily away. “You were awfully harsh with her, Dan.
She’s just concerned about the pilots, and she’s still a rooky.”

Daniel rubbed his forehead, “I know, I just can’t take any more losses. We have to
survive here, a couple days. The EDF is sending a battle group. We just heard from them a few
minutes ago. They told us to sit tight here and wait. Besides, how would we find them, they’re
probably both smashed up and..........”

“Colonel, there is a communication from blue four,” Yuki’s voice cut in over the com. “It
was broken up but I have retrieved what I could.”

“Let’s here it,” Daniel ordered.

“I.......go to.......planet surface......... damage............ their weapon........... with........
Torres.” She read off. “There are some partial pictures also.” The pictures appeared on the
screen.

“There looks to be more weapons at that base than there were before.” Johana
commented. “And this looks like it could be some kind of mech, maybe one of the mining robots.
There’s to much missing to tell.”

“Deserters, that’s what they are, disobeying my direct orders.” Daniel growled.


Chad didn’t want to end up a long ways from the gap where the Krikav had been, so after
checking the map that had been uploaded while they were still on board the ship, Chad found
another gap, a distance away, opposite the spin of the lowest band of asteroids. He worked his
way down to an asteroid layer moving toward that gap and ran up his main thruster just long
enough to catch a rock moving that way. Chad avoided using his main thruster and instead used
the larger asteroids as spring boards to jump off toward the area of the next gap. This gap was
smaller, and it took concentration to maneuver into the area. Chad worked Ghost down to the
lowest level of asteroids. He caught onto a large rock and paused, drifting with the flow. This
was the moment, as much as Chad had gotten use to the feeling of sitting in the open, this was
still frightening. He felt like he was going to fall all those miles unprotected. “Damn that looks
scary.“ he told Ghost.

“Shall I turn off the cloaking, or make myself appear less transparent?” ghost asked.

“No, I think I’ll go for it just the way we are. I can take it, I hope.” Chad answered the
machine. Funny, Chad thought, that John should have reminded him of that old fighter plane
movie. The song from it use to be a favorite, when he was stealing cars. Now it came back to
him, ‘Highway to the Danger Zone’. Chad pushed off the rock and fell toward the planet.

[Zeratul2k]

Awesome chapters, the last ones! I would have thought you were gonna reference "High Speed Dirt", since it fits so well with the concept of Chad jumping like that

[oldwrench]

Thanks Z2k, I'm trying to get another chapter done before I leave for two weeks. I'm trying to get to a bit more settled point to leave things.

[oldwrench]

I can't leave you with Chad hanging in the air like that, but will he be able to make it down in one piece. I have a feeling falling to the planet isn't going to be as easy as he thinks. Time to get Georgianna back into this mess. And, is Edward going to be able to handle a very upset Rydia?

Chapter 66

Edward entered Rydia’s lab. She was sitting at her lab table, her face in her hands. When
she heard him enter, she looked up. Edward was about to start talking when she jumped up from
her chair and threw her coffee mug at him. He ducked and the mug shattered against the wall.
“You lied to me,” Rydia wailed at him. As he approached her, she ran up to him and beat
on his chest with her small fists. “You lied, you told me that they would kill everyone, that I had
to stop them. And all along, it was just because you promised that man I would kill them.”
Edward wrapped his arms around the distraught girl and tried to calm her. “Settled down
now, Rydia. I didn’t promise him any such thing,” Edward assured her. “I just told him you had
the power to destroy the ship, not that you would do it. The truth is, they are a danger to the
colonists. Those men are savage killers, military dogs. I know, I was one of them before the
leader found me and showed me the error of their ways. They’ll just follow their orders and
destroy this planet. I would never ask you to do more that has to be done, my dear Rydia.”
Edward sighed, he hoped he had settled the naive girl. Why did such genius have to reside in
such an idealistic and foolish little girl? He held her as she cried. He couldn’t waste that genius.
How was he going to deal with the Leader?

Georgianna was jerked out of he deep sleep. She blinked to clear her vision and saw
captain Pryde next to her bed, the leads to the sleep inducer in his hand. “What? ..... What’s
going on?”

“We were attacked, things are a mess,” Aidan answered her question. “The colonel sent
me to wake you. We need you ASAP, captain.

Georgianna came instantly awake. An attack, and she’d been under that damn sleep
inducer. She quickly jumped out of her bed. “What’s going on? How bad is it?” She demanded.

Aidan stepped back tongue tied, he didn’t answer, just stared as Georgianna started to
pull clothing out of the small closet. He would never have expected to see captain McFarlaine
wearing the very feminine, and very revealing, neglige that she had on. His face turned very red
as he spun around and headed for the door.

“Wait, Aidan,” Georgianna call to him. “Don’t leave yet. I have to know what happened.”

Aidan stopped, with his back to her, he filled her in on the events of the last hour.
Inevitably, his eyes were drawn to the mirror by the door and he almost choked. He hadn’t seen
so much of a woman in......... well, a long time....... And, she was something to see.

Chad stretched out behind his arm shield, like a high diver. For a moment he wondered if
this could be the highest dive ever, several hundred k. Things were smooth and easy till he started
to hit the atmosphere. First there was a glow around the edge of the shield as the thickening
atmosphere ionized from the friction. It was a pretty sight till the buffeting started. Soon Chad
learned that this was going to be more difficult than he imagined. He strained the hydraulics to
keep the shield in front of Ghost, as the glow increased to a fiery stream. Chad fought the
controls, he couldn’t use the attitude thruster, at least, he had to limit them as much as he could.
Every burst used precious fuel. Sweat dripped into is eyes, either he was working really hard or it
was getting hot in the cockpit. Red warning indicators popped up in front of him, systems were
reaching critical temperatures. Maybe he was wrong, maybe the mech couldn’t withstand the heat
of free fall atmospheric entry.
In the control room at the Red Faction base, a soldier looked up from his sensor screen.
“Looks like another one coming in.” His superior officer came and looked over his shoulder.
“Na,” he assured the man, “ballistic course, no energy readings, that one’s just another rock.
Looks like it’ll hit out in the badlands somewhere.”
It was getting hard to breath, pieces from the edge of the glowing shield started to break
away, Chad was almost sure he wouldn’t make it, then the glow began to dim, the temperature
began to fall. Chad was beginning to have some hope. If he could just control the wild buffeting.
He discarded the shield, that helped, now the mech dived more smoothly toward the surface.
Chad’s pulse raced as the ground came rushing toward him. He spread out Ghost’s arms and
legs, falling like a sky diver, to slow his decent. He held out as long as he dared, longer than he
had calculated, hoping to save a bit more fuel. Finally he turned the mech around and fired the
thrusters, running the g load as high as he could tolerate. Anxiously he watched the altitude
indicator, and the fuel as they raced each other. Chad held his breath as he watched the fuel
numbers fall. He pushed the thrust a little higher, his vision narrowed to a thin tunnel centered on
the fuel numbers, they spun down to zero.......... For a few seconds, the tremendous weight of
deceleration was lifted, He almost had time to curse his luck before Ghost hit the ground.

The Supreme Leader of the Red Faction was furious. Why hadn’t the EDF ship been
destroyed as ordered? Why had his people received a transmission from the Krikav calling for re-
enforcement? He wanted answers.

“The ship moved at the same time as she fired the weapon,” General Geraldine tried
convince the Leader. “She isn’t a trained soldier, she didn’t anticipate that. She could have fired a
second time, but there was a fault in the power system monitoring, it showed the weapon wasn’t
charging. She did manage to severely damage the ship, I’ve sent out the remaining Nightmares to
finish it off.”

“There had better be no more excuses, general,” the Leader growled. “The EDF is
sending a battle group. A general is leading the group personally. I want you to use the weapon to
destroy the flagship so the general is out of the way, then the others will follow our orders to
attack.”

“I may not be able to convince Rydia to destroy another ship,” Edward admitted. “She’s
idealistic and naive.”

“Then you will have to use the reserve plan,” the Leader ordered. “If you cannot convince
her to turn over control of the weapon, you will deliver her to us for conditioning. We will take
the information from her.”

“Acknowledged,” Edward replied despondently. Somehow he had to convince the girl to
follow orders, or they would take her, and she would be ruined. He didn’t want to use the backup
plan. He didn’t want that on his hands.”

[oldwrench]

Ok, just one more before I go, I couldn't leave with Chad in limbo like that. Well, I could, but you probably would get mad at me. So this chapter is all about one pilot, ya, you guessed, and welcome to Mar Sara. I'll get back to the others when I get back from vacation.

Chapter 67

Chad felt like a soccer ball..... a well used one. The mech’s powerful hydraulics had
absorbed much of the shock, and he had rolled it to break the fall, but he’d been slammed around
with the belt harness digging painfully into him. Chad checked the systems, the tough machine
hadn’t suffered any damage in the landing. Chad rolled Ghost to it’s feet and stood up. He got his
first look at the planet’s surface. For someone from an inner city, or any city or space colony for
that matter, it was breathtaking, and a bit frightening. He could see for miles in all directions, but
there wasn’t much to see. It was a rocky plain with a sparse covering of scrub brush. To the south
and east the desert went on as far as the eye could see, to the north was a ridge of mountains, and
west, the way he had come from, were green hills.
“I guess we should head back toward those hills,” Chad told Ghost. “I need to find some
tools, and that looks like the best bet to find someone.”

“There is an apparent habitation twelve point seven kilometers to the north west,” Ghost
informed him.

“Huh? Can you see that from here?” Chad asked as he increased magnification. “All I see
is those hills.”

“I took a photographic record of the surface as we approached, and have compiled a
map.” Ghost told him. “There are several buildings and cultivated areas, suggesting habitation, at
the indicated co-ordinates.” A photo map with a position marked came up in front of Chad.

“Thanks, Ghost. I forgot all about mapping.” Chad looked over the map. “I don’t see any
hiways, or any other buildings around. Maybe the place is empty, but we’ll stop one k from the
place and I’ll check it out.”
Ghost rapidly moved across the desert to the green hills. Chad found a rocky flat among
the brush and stopped there. “I suppose there’s no way the com would reach the ship?” Chad
asked with little hope.

“The short range com cannot reach the Krikav,” Ghost confirmed what he already knew,
“But, the subspace com could be used to reach the ship.”

Chad just stared for several seconds. He felt like banging his head on the console. How
could he have forgotten that? The subspace system was used for long range com, overcoming the
time lag. Feeling a bit foolish, Chad brought up the subspace com on the main screen. He quickly
typed out a message and hit the send........ There was no reply. He sent it a second time, and
checked the transmission log. There wasn’t even a reception acknowledgment. “Ghost, is there
something wrong with the subspace com?”

“Transmission parameters indicate optimal, Chad.” Ghost assured him. “The transmission
is being made, the Krikav com unit does not appear to be operating.”

Chad was more than a little worried. What had happened to the ship? He’d seen them turn
and start to move away. Had they been attacked again? Chad remembered Arisa’s blue eyes, and
soft touch, he wondered if she was alright. He had to find out. Chad wished he had the binary
code for Greg’s subspace system, but he didn’t. What could he do? “Ghost, I’m going to try
sending a message to EDF command. I know, it’s a long shot, but maybe they’ll have one of the
big antennas pointed this direction, and maybe someone will notice .................... ya, and maybe
I’ll become emperor.” Chad composed a message and sent it anyway. He might get lucky. “Just
keep sending that, Ghost. I’m going to check those buildings, maybe there are some tools there.”

Chad was surprised how cool it was outside of the mech. It should be late summer here,
and the info on the planet said this latitude should be quite warm. He looked up, the sun was dim,
filtered though the dense asteroid belts. So, that was the reason, he thought. It didn’t take long for
him to cover the distance to the buildings. He used his binoculars to scan the area as he hid
among the brush a short way from the buildings. There were fields of short plants around the
building site. Some sort of large animals were in a fenced area attached to one of the buildings.
They were a bit of a worry, with those horns on their heads, Chad hoped they couldn’t get out of
that thin wire fence. There must be someone living here, probably in the two story building.
Chad crept through the field, keeping a large building with no windows between himself
and the building he thought might be inhabited. When he got to the large building, he looked
through a gap in the very large doors. The building was full of huge machines of strange
configuration. Chad had no idea what they would be used for, but it looked promising that there
were tools here somewhere. There weren’t many tools in the machine building, so Chad moved
on. He avoided the building with the large animals. There was a door open from their yard into
that building and, even though they just stood there chewing and looking at him, he didn’t trust
them. There was one other large building, it had a large door, and windows. He crept over to the
building and looked in........... Chad stared...... Jackpot! There weren’t just tools, there was a
whole machine shop. Chad snuck around and into the building, with the tools and machines in
the building, he could fix or even make almost anything he needed.
Chad searched through the neatly arranged tools and carefully selected the ones he would
need to remove the panels and the ones he thought he would need to remove the fuel lines and
other components. He would have to remove the electronic boards and see if they could be
repaired. There were a lot of electronic boards and components in boxes here. There might be
enough parts to rig his systems to work. Chad was like a kid in a candy store, with his arms full,
he turned back toward the door............... Chad froze, his smile left his face and fear replaced it.
He was facing his worst nightmare, looking into the dark bore of a gun.

[oldwrench]

Now that I'm home, I should get back to the story. I'm sure you want to know what happens next. WHat will colonel Hellwind do to defend the Krikav? Will Georgianna be able to use the few remaining pilots to ward off the coming attack? Will our upset pilot, Arisa, go AWOL? What about Dominic? Did he survive? And what about Chad? Will his message get through to EDF command? And, will he live to find out?

I'll get to work on the next chapter.

[oldwrench]

Since I didn't die from this cold, maybe I'll be able to get back to the story......... sorry for the long wait.

[oldwrench]

Might not have died from the cold, but I've had terminal burnout from working at the new house. I'm trying to get more written, I promise.